From illusion to oblivion in two months
Marcos Llorente and Mario Hermoso have not found their place at Atletico Madrid despite their good performances in preseason. The Cholo is still playing with almost the same team.
The new Atletico, which showed an imposing threat in the summer, have not really shown that they could be a great alternative to the duopoly Barcelona-Real Madrid in this beginning of the League.
The Madrid team went from scoring seven against their eternal rivals at preseason, to a flavourless 0-0 draw in the league, in which they repeated past errors... and almost with the line-up.
Only the wings and Joao Felix have settled into this new Atletico team, whilst men such as Thomas have shown big growth in the start of the season.
Precisely the good news with the Ghanaian becomes bad for Marcos Llorente. The former Real Madrid player was one of Atletico's most popular signings in the summer because of the way he came from the historic rival in the capital.
30 million euros that so far have not been profitable, as the midfielder has barely played any minutes for the team.
Only 161 minutes distributed in six games and only one start, which confirm that the midfielder still has a long way to go in understanding the methods of Cholo.
For Mario Hermoso, another of the star signings after his great 2017/18 campaign, things have gone even worse. He has played only four games and, although he has more playing minutes than Llorente -184-, his case is more worrying, as he has stayed three times in the stands, without entering the squad.
The illusion for the arrival of both, the same one that woke up the red and white team in preseason, has remained also in nothing, while the Cholo repeats that the season is long and that all will have their time to shine. Apparently so far, Llorente and Hermoso will have to work much more to earn it.